Dene Barton and Chard Community Hospitals will remain closed until at least March 2019

Dene Barton and Chard Community Hospitals will remain closed until at least March 2019

BREXIT, the loss of bursaries and the lack of a university in Somerset have all been blamed for two community hospitals remaining closed.

The Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the county’s community hospitals, has confirmed Wellington community hospital’s inpatient ward will reopen in the new year.

But the “fragile” staffing levels mean the inpatient wards at Chard and Dene Barton will not re-open until March 2019 at the earliest.

The trust has also revealed that around a quarter of its nurses are currently eligible to retire.

Andy Heron, the trust’s deputy chief executive, gave an update to Somerset County Council’s adults and health scrutiny committee in Taunton on Wednesday (December 5).

He said: “We continue to struggle with staffing. We didn’t have a bad September – we managed to get a few new nurses – but the situation still remains difficult and fragile.”

Mr Heron said the decision to reopen Wellington had been partially motivated by a need to recruit new staff.

He said: “No-one’s going to apply for jobs while Wellington hospital is in ‘pause mode’ – we are going to reopen Wellington in January.

“It’s going to be challenging – but the nurses there are doing a sterling job to keep Bridgwater and Williton’s hospitals going as well.”

He went on to say staffing levels at the remaining closed hospitals would be monitored over the winter.

He said: “We took a decision in autumn that we couldn’t see any prospect of reopening those before the end of March. We’ll be reviewing the situation over the Christmas period.”

Ethna Bashford, the trust’s director of patient care, said Brexit had impacted on recruitment, with a number of European nurses returning overseas.

She said: “We have to monitor this very carefully to ensure safety for our patients and the impact on our staff. I’m sorry to mention Brexit, but with Brexit we did see the exit of many of our European nurses.

“Overseas nurses don’t want to work in community hospitals – they want to work in acute settings. We don’t have a university in Somerset, but we are trying to entice students that this is a great place to work.

“Quite a high percentage of newly qualified nurses move within the first year. We are doing quite a lot to improve our recruitment and retain our current staff.”

Mr Heron added: “I think the single most helpful thing would be if Somerset could have a university.”

Cllr Mark Healey argued the departure of European nurses was caused more by changing economic conditions in their original countries.

He said: “Wages are more attractive now in many eastern European countries, so it’s natural that people would move back there.“

Cllr Mark Keating said: “I always feel a bit ashamed to hear that we are recruiting more from overseas – I think it’s terrible that as a first world country we can’t train enough nurses.”

Cllr Leigh Redman added: “It’s not just the health service that is looking for staff – it’s our carers. Someone needs to take a step back and rethink the system.”

Ms Bashford said the trust was looking to recruit by going into secondary schools and colleges, inspiring young people to consider nursing as a decree course.

She said: “We can’t be dependent on recruitment days since many young people will have already made up their minds.

“What we are looking to do internally is to find creative ways to get through their nursing degree without debts that they can’t afford – without having to give up their current job.”

She added the loss of the nursing bursary – which was abolished in August 2017 – had prevented older people from coming forward to train as nurses.

She said: “It doesn’t impact on the intake numbers, but it does impact on their age group.”

Cllr Hazel Prior-Sankey, who chairs the committee, added: “I was having a conservation yesterday with someone who was looking at a career in maternity, but she said: ‘I’m worried I couldn’t afford it’.”

In the absence of a university in Somerset, the trust is working with Plymouth University to provide a training base in Exeter, cutting the journey time for people training to be nurses and allow them to “build up a relationship” with health providers more local to Somerset.

Mr Heron said the current make-up of the workforce meant the healthcare system had to move away from bed-based care, in favour of people receiving more treatment in their own homes.

He said: “Looking at the demographics of the workforce, we’re all going to have to innovate around there being less trained professionals.

“We change about 13 per cent of our workforce every year, and we actually turnover slightly less than many of our neighbours in terms of people leaving.

“Nursing is a mature workforce – about a quarter of our nurses are eligible to retire now.”

Cllr Tessa Munt asked what we being done to prevent experienced staff from leaving the NHS.

She said: “A large number of nurses with huge amounts of experience are being tipped out at the other end of the system. How do you stem that problem?

“It’s worrying if people retire early or on time, and then come back in on the bank, because that’s how they get the hours they want.”

Ms Bashford said the trust was looking at more flexible means of working to meet staffing needs.

The committee will receive a further update on staffing levels in the new year.

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